Our world is fundamentally changing—and with it, our perceptions of what we value and how we wish to lead our lives. In this latest global study, Havas Worldwide explores shifts in attitudes and behaviors related to the care and feeding of our bodies. The study draws from the experiences and points of view of more than 10,000 men and women in 28 markets around the globe.

FAQ

FAQ: HWW PROSUMER REPORT
iBody: The New Frontier

Why is Havas Worldwide studying this topic?
Our world is fundamentally changing—and with it, consumers’ perceptions of what they value and how they wish to lead their lives. In this latest global study, Havas Worldwide explores shifts in attitudes and behaviors related to beauty and the care of our bodies.

What topics are covered in the white paper?

• Pleasure, Purity & Power—A Typology of Body Perspectives: Combining survey responses with cultural insights from strategic planners in each market, we were able to identify three segmentations within the global sample: Pleasure Seekers (value the pleasure the body brings above all else), Holistic Enthusiasts (consider the body at one with the natural world), and Functionalists (see the body as a tool to be tweaked for maximum utility). Understanding the dominant perspective in each country will help marketers craft messages that resonate there.

• Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: In this segment of the study, we explore how people feel about their looks and what physical changes they would make if given the opportunity. The good news is that most people—nearly three-quarters of Prosumers and two-thirds of mainstream consumers—are happy with their appearances. Nevertheless, nearly three-quarters would change at least one body part, and more than a third of millennials would go so far as to exchange their entire bodies with someone else.

• From Beauty Fatigue to High-Tech Routines—Healthy Is the New Ideology: We’re seeing a big pushback against a narrowly defined concept of “beauty” and a move away from dieting in favor of a more holistic approach to physical fitness. This includes eating more healthfully and getting a good night’s sleep.

• Are Sugar and Fat the New Tobacco?: As rates of obesity and diabetes continue to soar, people are paying more attention to how much sugar they (and their children) consume—a shift that’s having an impact on brands in a number of categories. The biggest nutritional changes the global sample have made in the last year include reducing their intake of sugar and fat. Millennials and Prosumers also are showing signs of impatience with people who fail to keep their weight in check.

• The New Frontier of Body Enhancement: New tools with which to enhance and perfect the body and mind are becoming less sci-fi and more real every day. We explore attitudes toward new technologies already on the market, as well as toward potential scientific breakthroughs.

• Implications for Brands: Now that people are seeking to make lifestyle changes with an eye to living healthier longer, what’s the role of brands? As in so many other areas, consumers are looking for brand partners to give them the tools and motivation they need to turn their best intentions into reality. We look at a number of areas in which opportunities for brands are particularly abundant.

Who are Prosumers?
In all of our global surveys, Havas Worldwide uses a proprietary algorithm to break the sample into two groups: mainstream consumers (which, in the case of this study, made up 80 percent of the sample) and Prosumers (20 percent). These breakouts are included in the report and presentation.

Why do Prosumers matter?
These proactive and informed men and women are today’s leading influencers and market drivers. They have always been important, but they have grown even more powerful thanks to their skillful embrace of emerging technologies and, especially, social media.

Havas Worldwide has been tracking Prosumers for more than a decade and in that time has interviewed thousands of them. They are important to us because, beyond their own economic impact, they influence the brand choices and behaviors of others. Simply put, what Prosumers are doing today, mainstream consumers are likely to be doing six to 18 months from now. Learn more about Prosumers and our Prosumer studies at http://www.havasworldwide.com/prosumer-report and by following us on Twitter (@prosumer_report).

Who created the study?
Prosumer Reports is a series of thought leadership publications by Havas Worldwide—part of a global initiative to share information and insights, including our own proprietary research, across the Havas Worldwide network of agencies and client companies.

Havas Worldwide is a leading integrated marketing communications agency and was the first to be named Global Agency of the Year by both Advertising Age and Campaign in the same year. The Havas Worldwide network is made up of 11,000 employees in 316 offices in 120 cities and 75 countries, and provides advertising, marketing, corporate communications, and digital and social media solutions to some of the largest global brands. Headquartered in New York, Havas Worldwide is the largest unit of the Havas group, a world leader in communications (Euronext Paris SA: HAV.PA).

How was the study fielded?
In March 2015, Havas Worldwide partnered with Market Probe International to survey 10,131 people aged 18+ in 28 markets: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Where can I get additional findings?
Complete findings of this report—including data for each market surveyed—are available to employees and clients of Havas Worldwide by contacting heather.ball@havasww.com. Key findings from this and earlier studies, along with select data, are available to the public on this site.

I am a member of the media. How can I get more information?Yvonne Bond
Chief Network Initiatives and Communications Officer
Havas Group
M+1 646 643 8824
E yvonne.bond@havasww.com

Study Highlights

STUDY HIGHLIGHTS: HWW PROSUMER REPORT
iBody: The New Frontier

Our world is fundamentally changing—and with it, our perceptions of what we value and how we wish to lead our lives. In this latest global study, Havas Worldwide explores shifts in attitudes and behaviors related to the care and feeding of our bodies. The study draws from the experiences and points of view of more than 10,000 men and women in 28 markets around the globe.

Highlights of the study include:

1. A typology of body perspectives: Even with mass globalization, individual countries continue to be influenced by a unique set of cultural values, beliefs, and traditions. These influences color perspectives of every aspect of life, including how we view our physical selves. Combining survey responses with cultural insights from strategic planners in each market, we were able to identify three segmentations within the global sample: Pleasure Seekers (value the pleasure the body brings above all else), Holistic Enthusiasts (consider the body at one with the natural world), and Functionalists (see the body as a tool to be tweaked for maximum utility). Understanding the dominant perspective in each country will help marketers craft messages that resonate there.

2. A new body pressure linked to responsibility: With knowledge comes power—and a responsibility to act according to the most trusted information. Roughly two-thirds of Prosumers and half the mainstream consumers surveyed are spending more time online these days researching health matters. This is influencing not just what they do with their own bodies, but how they judge the actions of others.

3. Millennials are least satisfied with what nature has given them: Millennials are the age group most likely to say they like how they look (62 percent agreement vs. 57 percent for respondents aged 35‒54 and 51 percent for those aged 55+). However, they are also the age group least satisfied with their current selves. More than 4 in 10 millennials wish they were taller, 36 percent said their weight/looks cause them to avoid certain activities they think they’d enjoy, and 22 percent avoid looking in full-length mirrors as much as possible. It’s perhaps little wonder, then, that a third of this age group would happily switch bodies with someone else.

4. A pushback against unrealistic standards of beauty: Around the world, people are tired of being bombarded by messages saying that being beautiful means being “perfect” according to a narrowly defined set of dictates. Looking at the Prosumers within our sample, 82 percent worry that outer beauty is now more highly valued than what’s in one’s heart and mind; 79 percent think the Photoshopping of celebrities and others is harming society; and 75 percent believe that, as a society, we’ve actually lost sight of what true beauty is.

5. Hungry for data…: With apps and devices already on the market to measure everything from how we sleep to how much water we consume, people have gotten used to the idea of using technology to monitor and improve their body’s health and performance. Nearly half of Prosumers and more than a quarter of the mainstream already use at least one digital app or device to monitor their health. And around 7 in 10 Prosumers think having a digital device that would measure every aspect of their health would be a good thing. People are slightly more leery of devices that monitor mental health, but even here 58 percent of Prosumers and 43 percent of the mainstream give such a device the thumbs-up.

6. …but leery about too much tech: At the same time that respondents are keen on the health-related advances new technologies will bring, they are leery of technologies becoming overly intrusive. Only around 1 in 10 of them, for instance, would be willing to have a device implanted that would report on their health 24/7. And nearly half the sample worry that new technologies will ultimately lead to our bodies no longer being able to repair themselves naturally. Forty-three percent worry about a potential loss of privacy and confidentiality.

7. Don’t mess with nature: While half the global sample would like to see a pill developed that lets people lose weight quickly and safely and around a third would support a pill that increases IQ or makes people look 10 years younger, there was a clear “no” vote against using science to interfere with the process of human creation. A majority of respondents are opposed to the development of a pill that would let couples choose their baby’s gender or other physical characteristics prior to conception. They also rejected the possibility of “growing” babies outside a woman’s body.

8. Mind and body are officially linked: Whereas the mind-body connection used to be recognized primarily in the East, now there’s a global consensus that the impact of our physical health can have as strong an impact on our mind and spirits as on our bodies. When we asked people why they want to be physically fit, the majority were fairly evenly split between wanting to “live healthier longer” and wanting to “feel good and reduce stress.”

9. Scaling back on dieting: Compared with a couple of years ago, around two-thirds of Prosumers are eating healthfully more often, half are exercising more, and 4 in 10 are making a greater effort to get a good night’s sleep. In contrast, only around a quarter say they’re dieting more to lose weight, while a third say they’re actually dieting less. The emphasis appears to be more on overall health and less on the numbers on the bathroom scale. Half of Prosumers and mainstream consumers believe that being fat doesn’t necessarily mean one’s unhealthy.

10. Sugar is the new enemy: When asked what body-related changes they’d made in the past year, respondents were most apt to say they’d reduced their intake of sugar. Fat has long been the bogey man in the healthfulness narrative, but it’s getting increased competition from sweeteners as people grow more concerned about the sharp rise in diabetes and childhood obesity. Marketers already are responding to this shift with reduced-sugar versions of their mainstay brands.

To learn more about the study and to download the full report, please visit www.havasworldwide.com/prosumer-report.

And follow us on Twitter @prosumer_report.

About the Study
In March 2015, Havas Worldwide partnered with Market Probe International to survey 10,131 people aged 18+ in 28 markets: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The survey sample was made up of 20 percent leading-edge Prosumers and 80 percent mainstream consumers. For the purposes of this report, we have characterized respondents aged 18‒34 as millennials.